Ten years after I graduated college, I’m going back to school…
3 minute read
December 23, 2013, 4:08 PM
First of all, yes, it really has been ten years since I finished college. I finished up at JMU a little more than ten years ago, and then they mailed me the diploma not long after that. I can’t believe that it’s been that long. Doesn’t feel like ten years have gone by, that’s for sure.
That said, a lot has happened lately. I am now the proud holder of a commercial learner’s permit, which I got on Monday at the MVA in Gaithersburg. That was a stressful time, but probably not in the way you might think. I got in there, got my number, and then sat down, figuring that I might as well get comfortable. I took this picture, and then posted it to Instagram:
Continue reading…Reading the book…
6 minute read
November 22, 2013, 11:15 AM
So to bring everyone up to speed on the employment situation, I am still between engagements. That’s not to say that I’ve not been diligently submitting tons of applications and going to the occasional interview, but I still have yet to land a new full-time job. However, there’s been a shift in my thinking. I had an “aha” moment not too long ago when it came to what I wanted to do. Everyone has said, considering how much of a transit nerd I am, that I should get into public transportation. I talked it over with my family, and they all think it’s a great idea, so I’m taking steps toward making that so. I want to get in on the ground floor and then work my way up. After all, I love transit. I can’t get enough of it. So why not make it my career, already?
That said, I’m currently reading the Maryland CDL Manual with the intent of getting a commercial learner’s permit so that I can learn how to drive a bus. So far, I’ve read Section 1, which is a general overview of the manual and the whole CDL process, as well as a list of many of the various offenses that would cause you to lose your CDL from a period ranging from a few months to life depending on what sort of offense and number of offenses. I’ve also read Section 2.1, which discusses the pre-trip inspection.
The pre-trip inspection is something that, if you didn’t know to do it, you might not think to do it, but it makes perfect sense considering what you’re doing. After all, these are very large vehicles that we’re talking about here. Compare the size of a bus to that of a regular car:
Road trip to New Jersey…
12 minute read
October 30, 2013, 9:45 PM
Last Thursday, October 24, was a fun day. I took a one-day road trip to Monmouth County, New Jersey. The inspiration was my needing a change of scenery for a day, and seeing this as an opportunity to do a few things I’d wanted to do for a while now.
As with any trip, they say that getting there is half the fun, but I was quickly struck by how much it cost to get to New Jersey. Let’s just say that officials in northeastern states, New Jersey in particular, never met a road or a bridge that they couldn’t slap a toll on. And tolls have gone up. The Baltimore tunnels in Maryland (Fort McHenry and Harbor) are now four bucks each way (up from $2), and the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge is now eight bucks(!) for its northbound-only toll (up from $5). Otherwise, the Intercounty Connector near me was $2.05 from Layhill Road to I-95 (it’s a variable toll depending on time of day – your results may vary), Delaware was still four dollars, the New Jersey Turnpike was $3.50 to Exit 7A, and then the Garden State Parkway wanted fifty cents from me for going one exit. Kind of surprisingly, New Jersey didn’t want anything for my ride on I-195. Altogether, it cost $22.05 in tolls alone to get to my first destination. And that’s just getting there. I had to run that gauntlet of tolls coming back, too.
The first stop was a very personal one for me. I went to Temple Beth-El Cemetery in Neptune, where my grandparents on my father’s side, Ruth and Seymour (“Pop”) Schumin, are buried. I also didn’t realize before I arrived that Aunt Ruth and Uncle Seymour were buried in the same location. Uncle Seymour died in April 1981, a little less than two months before I was born. Pop and Grandma died within a month and a half of each other in the spring of 1988, when I was in first grade. Aunt Ruth died in November 2003, right around Thanksgiving. Therefore, I never got to know Uncle Seymour, it’s been 25 years since Pop and Grandma died, and it’s been almost ten years since Aunt Ruth died.
Categories: Asbury Park, Driving, Family, Roads
Two near-identical photo features…
5 minute read
September 2, 2013, 11:54 PM
As of this writing, the photo feature shows a street sign marking the intersection of Forest Springs Drive and Springer Road in Stuarts Draft, taken on August 25:
Categories: Roads, Schumin Web meta, Stuarts Draft
Chicago 2013…
10 minute read
August 9, 2013, 8:10 PM
At the end of July, Mom and I took a trip to Chicago. We took the Capitol Limited, like we usually do, leaving DC on July 25 and returning July 30. Not a bad trip, but I believe that there was something pivotal about this particular trip: Chicago was becoming a regular thing. This isn’t a bad thing by any means. It doesn’t mean that I enjoyed the trip any less, though, it’s just that it’s become something that we do every year, and that’s fine. With the trip’s becoming something of a regular thing, this is the only thing you’re goign to get that’s specifically about the trip. There’s not going to be a Journal entry for each day like I did in 2011. No special photo set about the trip like I did in 2010 and 2012. And that’s fine. That’s not to say that there’s not going to be a photo set from the trip, though. But it’s going to be a regular photo set, in Photography, about the Chicago Botanic Garden. That photo set’s going to be what I describe as “flower porn”. Seriously, I got very close to a lot of flowering plants, and got detailed photos of them. When I used the term “flower porn”, Sis commented that it was also accurate, as I was photographing the reproductive parts of flowers. So there you go.
On the outbound trip, Mom and I were in a roomette. Second car back, room 14. That’s a lower level roomette. Mom and I were surprised to find that we felt like we didn’t have quite enough space on this trip. That came about mostly in regards to legroom, as neither one of us really could extend our legs very far without getting in the other person’s way, and sitting diagonally was a little uncomfortable for both of us. Having only one electrical outlet was also a problem, as we had several devices that we needed to charge: my laptop, my phone (which we were also tethering for Internet access when we had service), Mom’s phone, and Mom’s iPod Touch. And one electrical outlet. It was a shame that, when the Superliner I roomette panels were updated around 2011 or so, they didn’t add at least one additional power outlet. What we ended up doing was plugging in the laptop and charging everything off of that. It didn’t work as well in this capacity as I would have liked, however, we were asking the computer to do something that it probably was not designed to do, i.e. be a mobile charging station for three devices (vs. just one).
Meanwhile, the ride out was at times like visiting familiar places. This was not just because this was our fifth round trip on the Capitol Limited. Realize that as of this trip, I had visited all of the towns where we made a station stop between DC and Cumberland. DC, Rockville, Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, and Cumberland. Now mind you, it’s been eight years since I last visited Martinsburg, and even longer since I was in the part of Martinsburg where the train goes, but it still counts. Then I added Harpers Ferry earlier in the same month, and Cumberland in April.
Sometimes it just writes itself…
2 minute read
August 7, 2013, 11:47 AM
So I was looking at the Twitter last night after swimming, and I spotted this picture:
Source: Craig Sallinger
Categories: Advertising, Amusing, WMATA
Tonight’s commute was definitely more exciting than most…
8 minute read
May 14, 2013, 10:09 PM
Yes, tonight’s commute was definitely more exciting than most. You may have heard about the Red Line train that caught fire this evening at Silver Spring. That was my train. Apparently the Metro gods thought we all needed a little excitement in our commutes this evening. And that’s exactly what we got.
The ride started out pretty normally. I got the train at Dupont Circle, boarding Breda 3147 – the lead car. I was doing Facebook, and noticed this man who looked like a very serious businessman in a suit with his tablet computer and all that…
…and then I noticed that he was actually playing Angry Birds on his tablet.
When we got to Takoma, the train operator powered the train down and left the cab. My first thought was that he was being relieved to use the restroom, and that a supervisor would be taking over the train shortly. But no supervisor arrived, and I was starting to get a little bit concerned about when we were going to leave Takoma station.
Seeing Cumberland from the ground…
11 minute read
April 7, 2013, 12:28 AM
You may be familiar with Cumberland, Maryland. Whenever Mom and I go to Chicago, we take the Capitol Limited, and that train travels a route that goes through Martinsburg, Cumberland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, and South Bend, among other locations. When I take train trips, I like to look at the scenery. Some of it intrigues me, and it leads me do more research on it later. Take the Koppers facility in Green Spring, West Virginia. I always found it interesting to see these piles of neatly stacked lumber along the tracks. I researched it, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about what I had seen from the train. Towns are a similar idea. These little towns that the trains either pass through or stop in make me want to do more research. Unfortunately, many of these little towns are beyond my reach without incurring a lot of travel expenses, but for the places that I can reach, if they interest me enough, I’ll pay them a visit.
Cumberland was one of those places. The Capitol Limited spends a lot of time in Cumberland. Going west, the first thing that they do is a crew change, where they exchange engineers. Then they continue a little further west and do the passenger stop. That stop takes about ten minutes, and is also a “smoke stop”, where passengers who smoke are permitted to get off of the train and have a cigarette. While on the train waiting through the crew change and the longer passenger stop, I got to take an extended look at Cumberland. And I liked what I saw. I saw a town with some character to it, and I saw a few places that I would love to explore more deeply. I saw houses, I saw churches, and I saw the WTBO sign on Wills Mountain. And I was sure that there was much more that was interesting beyond what I could see from the train.
So this past Tuesday, I did exactly that. I grabbed the camera bag, got in the car, and headed off to Cumberland. This, by the way, is not exactly a short trip. Amtrak gives three hours and nine minutes to take the train from Union Station in DC to Cumberland. Google Maps gives two hours and 123 miles driving from my house in Aspen Hill to Cumberland Amtrak station by car. That’s going via the Intercounty Connector and I-370 to Gaithersburg, I-270 to Frederick, I-70 to Hancock, and then I-68 to Cumberland. I’ve done the drive on I-270 to Frederick a number of times in the past, and so I knew what to expect there. Interstate 70 through to Hagerstown took me over a number of hills and past the Appalachian Trail. I had taken I-70 west the rest of the way through Maryland when I went to Breezewood in 2006. Then I-68 was really awesome. The first thing you do is go through a highway cut through Sideling Hill, and then you go over a number of mountains before you arrive in Cumberland – directly in the middle of downtown.
Categories: Amtrak, Cumberland, Photography, Railroads, Travel
I can now add “commode critic” to my resume…
4 minute read
March 28, 2013, 12:44 PM
So I got back Tuesday night from a trip to Stuarts Draft. That was fun, though not the fun that I was expecting. I got to visit my friend Bergit in Charlottesville, and then spent two days spending time with my parents. The original plan was to go to Roanoke with Mom on Monday and also visit friends and see transportation-related stuff, but that unfortunately got snowed out.
But first, though, in case you’re wondering what the deal with the title is, let me explain. My trip started out with proof that my kidneys do great work, and that having a cup of coffee before a three-hour road trip is inadvisable. Yes, I took far more restroom breaks on this trip than I normally would. I ended up stopping at the rest area on I-66 near Manassas, Sheetz in Madison, the new Trader Joe’s in Charlottesville, and then the rest area on I-64 near Ivy. Usually I can make it on one restroom break. But, noooooo… my body decided that this was the perfect time to unload a bunch of water. And I was not shy about discussing restrooms on social media on the entire trip. This from the Sheetz in Madison:
And I accompanied this on Instagram with the following caption: “This road trip has been brought to you by the letter P, and by the number 1.” Yep… that kind of day.
Categories: Driving, Family, Stuarts Draft, Winter weather
What is Afton Mountain, anyway?
8 minute read
March 21, 2013, 5:58 PM
A friend of mine recently sent me a link to this article by Dr. Christopher M. Bailey, a geology professor at The College of William & Mary. The article discusses the name of a place that many people in the part of Virginia that I grew up with are most likely quite familiar with: Afton Mountain.
The article is titled, “Mind the Gap! Where is Afton Mountain?” and discusses the geology of the area, specifically Rockfish Gap, and a few quirks of the local culture. First, for those not familiar, Rockfish Gap is a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which separate the Shenandoah Valley and the Piedmont region in Virginia. Because it is the lowest gap for quite some ways traveling both north and south, the area became an important way to travel east and west. Today, Interstate 64 and US 250 carry travelers through Rockfish Gap.
Technically speaking, this is Rockfish Gap, seen here in a 2003 Schumin Web file photo:
Categories: Afton Mountain, Nature, Roads
“Where is this train going?” takes on new significance with Rush+…
5 minute read
December 18, 2012, 9:37 AM
So in reading the Express this morning, I looked at Dr. Gridlock’s column on the DC Rider page. There were three questions: two about escalators, and one about destination signs at Franconia-Springfield.
I took issue with the answer to that third question, which went as such:
Q: I am a regular rider at Franconia-Springfield and am adjusting to most parts of Rush Plus. However, the problem remains that trains pull into the station, turn off their destination signs, and you are left to guess whether it’s a Blue or Yellow Line train until about 30-45 seconds before they close the doors. It’s particularly frustrating when it is cold outside and there are two trains waiting with their doors open. Is there any way to persuade Metro to leave the direction signs lit?
A: I don’t see a good reason a train operator would need to turn off the destination signs, unless just maybe Metro isn’t sure where to send the train till the last minute. What I’m thinking of here is that the operations center monitors the crowding on the platforms and could alter a train’s route – though unlikely.
Categories: DC area local news, WMATA
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have just defeated Metro’s bag inspections.”
6 minute read
December 12, 2012, 10:40 PM
As summed up in this tweet, this evening’s commute was definitely a memorable one for me. The ride itself was uneventful, but the events leading up to it demonstrated major flaws in Metro’s random bag inspection program (which has been discussed in this space in 2008 and in 2010) and proves that it will never catch anything. Ever.
My evening commute got started as it usually does. I packed up my stuff, walked over to Dupont Circle station, and went down the brand new south escalators. Coming down the escalator, I noticed signage at the bottom that indicated that Metro was doing its random bag inspections. That was a first – I’d never seen one of those happen in person before. There were two Transit Police officers standing behind a table, swabbing people’s bags. No one said anything to me. Then as I headed toward the faregates, the female Transit Police officer standing in front of the kiosk stopped me and said that I had been selected for screening.
I was a bit surprised about that. I figured this would be just walking by and watching as Metro unnecessarily slowed people down on their way home from work. I never imagined that I would be the one getting chosen for extra scrutiny. I knew that I wasn’t going to take this one lying down. My exact words to the officer were, “I am refusing the search,” and I went back up the escalator. According to a quote from Metro in a 2010 Washington Post article on the subject, a person who “refuses to submit their carry-on items for inspection will be prohibited from bringing those items into the station.” Note that. Since I refused the search, I was, based on information provided to the public, prohibited from bringing my blue work bag onto Metro, which contained an umbrella, my by-then-empty lunch container, my transit log book, a set of keys, and a few various odds and ends (mostly junk – I really need to clean out my bag).
Driving in Virginia on Thanksgiving morning…
6 minute read
November 22, 2012, 7:04 PM
First of all, greetings from Stuarts Draft, where I will be through Sunday. And so far, so good. The drive went surprisingly well, and then Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely wonderful.
Considering how well my drive went today, though, I don’t know why anyone would want to go driving on the day before Thanksgiving. Seriously, this was one of the easiest drives to Stuarts Draft that I’ve had in a long time. I left the house around 8:45, and it was more or less smooth sailing the entire way. Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, from my house to the Beltway, was no problem.
On that note, by the way, does anyone know what’s going on with the Freestate gas station on Georgia Avenue at Layhill Road? This is how it looked this morning:
Categories: Clothing, Driving, Family, Kia Soul, Language, National politics, Sheetz, Silver Spring, Thanksgiving, Weight loss
Nothing like shopping with an arsenal of snarky tweets…
7 minute read
October 7, 2012, 1:42 AM
So I went shopping in Gaithersburg and Germantown on Saturday night. This was a follow-on from Friday’s shopping trip in Wheaton and Aspen Hill. Today’s goal, as with Friday’s goal, was to find some shirts in my current size that I could wear to work. The shirts that I wore last winter (the thrift store clothes) are now too big on me. So I went off in search of clothing.
First of all, Friday’s mission consisted of Old Navy and JCPenney in Wheaton, and then Kohl’s in Aspen Hill. I quickly discovered that Old Navy was not what I was looking for. It was clear that Old Navy was not catering to my demographic. It caters to the teenage set and to adults who are way hipper than I am. However, I did find a winner at Penney’s:
What “SPECIAL” really means…
8 minute read
October 3, 2012, 12:14 AM
This morning as I was taking the Red Line to work and reading the Express, I read the DC Rider section, as I usually do. Today, they ran a rider Q&A with Dr. Gridlock. One of the questions that was posed was about Metro’s destination signage, which I quote here along with Dr. Gridlock’s answer:
Q: Why doesn’t Metro label trains during their weekend shutdowns? Several times this weekend on the Green Line, I saw passengers confused by trains that were only labeled “Special” with no color line identified on the front. One lady rushed off a train at L’Enfant Plaza because she thought it was a Yellow Line train, and another guy was about to try to transfer because he didn’t know the train was going to Congress Heights.
Dr. Gridlock: I don’t see any good coming from labeling trains “Special.” When Rush Plus began, Metro officials made such a big deal out of telling everyone to watch the destination signs.
I have a few concerns with this response. First off, the response mixes up regular service with temporary service changes for track work. Metro’s Rush+ is the regular service pattern during the hours that it is in operation, and comes with certain things like programming in destination sign information for the regular terminals if need be, maps, and permanent signage. Service changes for track work are only in effect for a weekend, and thus what Metro has at its disposal is different, and it’s not always feasible to make things look like they do in regular service for weekend service changes. Second, they leave PIDS completely out of the equation in the response. And last, there seems to be a lack of understanding on both parties’ part about what makes Metro pull out that “SPECIAL” destination sign in the first place.
Categories: DC area local news, WMATA